Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge

I have a Rosewill external enclosure for a 3.5" drive which has USB2.0 and eSATA outs. It's been working very well for me. There are several 2.5" models on Newegg's site of various prices and review results:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...807124 1054107131&name=SATA&SpeTabStoreType=1

 

You can get a slow USB 2.0, or an enclosure w/ esata port but then you need to sacrifice a USB port for power (or use an A/C adapter) & one regular esata cable for data like this mess (image from this page):



The best solution is to take advantage of the USB/esata combo port on the F & use a special esta/USB cable.

Check this enclosure, takes advantage of the combo port, operates w/ one cable: HE-2521B

 

Im about to buy the 160GB Intel X25-M G2 Solid State Hard Drive For my Sony F too, But wondering why the write speed is too slow? (260MB/s read, 90MB/s write, TRIM)

Should it be alright?

 

Just wondering, you are talking about replacing the internal HDD with an intel SSD? Part of the reason I want to get the F now is cuz the SSD drives seems to be pretty cheap in the canadian site.

 

@NHMike: Thanks for the suggestion. I forgot to mention that I prefer to have eSATA support. They do have a black enclosure with eSATA support, but the lack of power adapter bothers me (I'm guessing a 500GB 7200RPM drive will require both USB ports for power, so that would just be too many, if someone can confirm this is not the case, please do).

I've also looked at the Coolmax and Vantec ones, but the first seems to be having incompatibility issues with newer eSATA adapters and they are both missing the power adapter.


@Joe: Thanks a lot, I didn't even know they could draw power from that eSATA port. It seems like the perfect solution.

Would that be enough to power this drive? I've heard that using only one USB port might not be enough to properly power the drive and might damage the motherboard/port.

It should. See the posts in this thread starting here.

 

Can anyone speculate why my F CTO came with an Atheros card instead of an Intel 6200? Someone mentioned in a previous post that all later builds were using the Intel 6200 and I purchased mine from sony style US on Feb 2.

Also, how are the Hitachi drives? Mine is 320GB 7200rpm.

 

Hi,
I received my VPCF1190X CTO notebook from Sonystyle USA Yesterday.
I configured with the following options.

- i7-820QM processor
-Genuine Windows® 7 Ultimate 64-bit
-500GB Hard Disk Drive (7200rpm)
-8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM
-Blu-ray Disc™ player/burner
-Black 16.4" Premium Display.
- Backlight Keyboard (I love this white color keyboard backlight)

This machine is very fast and so far no whining noice or any other sound. It is very very quite. I didnt like the screen brightness at first then after i turned off automatic brightness it is lot better.

I played blu-ray movie and the details are fantastic. the speaker sound is ok but not very good.

I decided to get F11 after reading all information in this forum.
Thanks to everyone in this forum for your wonderful and helpful feedback and suggestion.

 

You can also use a firewire drive, which again takes its power from the port. Firewire is the fastest connection that is also widely available, whereas Esata is less common, and USB2 is much slower.

Hitachis are good drives, very reliable.

 

The pre-built F series is now available for pre-order on the ss.ca website:

http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/se...1&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&productId=1007408

http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/se...63601&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&langId=-1

Description: Sony's VAIO® F-Series Notebook PC featuring an Intel® Core i7 - 720QM (1.60HGz) CPU and NVIDIA GeForce GT 310M Graphics Card with 512MB VRAM - Bilingual for $1199.99

 

I guess some chassis still had the Atheros - with which there's nothing wrong, it's known for good connectivity. The Intel 6200 just happens to be two-channel.

 

This is essentially the same computer as sold at BestBuy.

 

They're still writing the page, the links are changing.

 

You can't draw power from a normal esata port. But you can from the F's esata/USB combo port when using a esata/USB combo cable.



You can use a pocket drive & 1 USB port on modern notebooks. This enclosure does not have any different power needs. It's just using the faster esata part to transmit data but still uses the USB port for power: HE-2521B. User testimonial here, where I it was suggested to me.

There is surely other models out-there but they are hard to find w/ keywords as it is a new product & they use different descriptions.

Check the users comments about this esata/USB combo cable: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812189206

And this alternative w/o enclosure but w/ esata/USB combo cable and sata connector @ the other end for the 2.5" HDD: http://cgi.ebay.com/2-5-eSATA-USB-C...C_Drives_Storage_Internal?hash=item1e59d91f47

Note: there is not enough power in the esata/USB combo port for 3.5" drive which need A/C adapters.

 

How is the video card on this? This has got to be better on battery life.

 

Go back 5-6 pages or use "Search this Thread".

 

can anyone tell me how can i see if my sony series f comes whit backlit keyboard? is there any configuration to it or just turn off the lights of the room and wait for the keyboard to light up

 

I couldnt find anything regarding NVIDIA GeForce GT 310M Graphics Card with 512MB VRAM only comments with the 1gb video card. Im very aware of battery life with the 1gb card. Didnt even know it came with the 512 card cause its not offered in the US.

 

What, not issues to report? That's boring.

Just kidding, thanks for the feedback!

 

Thank You for sharing, I've loved my screen for a week and now I know it was weak

I've also noticed a big improvement, looking at the win7 desktops whit your profile poited me out so many beiges and greys that were all blues. (also in this forum template )

I've a small/sreange side effect, when dragging or scrolling a window I get some "purple firing" does it also happens to You?

I've tried also Yours, good ones.

If I haven't missed something I've got that US (sold in north america) models all have the atheros card and then was a nice surprise when we discovered* that in Europe we were (and are) getting the Intels ones.


*if I remember well, I was asking for that info when the first ones were delivered in EU and Erik was the first one finding and telling that

 

I placed my order on the 8th of Feb (the day before yesterday), today morning I received an email that my F is in production and now I just received an email that it has been shipped. That was FAST for a custom-built machine !

 

EU or US?

In EU we don't get it.

 

Try searching this board w/ less kw, like 310 or 310m.

GT 310M is class 3 while GT 330m is class 2 with 73 gigaflops vs. 182 (besides other significant differences) according to these pages:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-310M.22439.0.html

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-330M.22437.0.html

Dunno about battery life differences, but that's not why I'm getting the F for anyway.

Yes it is w/ the 900p screen & GT 310M, Sonystyle, BB, Newegg, B&H, etc, etc.

 

Potugal, EU so no backlit for me ;( damn why do they take it in EU cant understand why they do this

 

Maybe because US is a big market w/ one language & it would be expensive to do regular & back-lit Spanish, French, etc.?

As I said before, I am willing to trade my US back-lit keyboard for your EU Premium matte screen anytime!

 

With what? The GT330? My order was placed on the 5th, it went into "Build" immediately, and now it's delayed, on hold.

 

Maybe the guy building it dropped-it on the floor & they have to make a new one, so back at the end of the queue? :smile:

 

Or he is the subject of a cruel psychological experiment. Mwuuuuhahaaaa!!

 

I'm thinking it failed quality assurance after the build, and now they don't have a GT330 for another build.

 

Ya, they know you by now as you already returned one so they double-checked.

 

Interestingly my credit card has just been charged, not held, but charged, but the last email is still "delayed." Last time my card wasn't charged until two days after I'd received the unit.

 

Good news as they don't charge the card before shipping. So I guess it was not too damaged by the fall. A dab of glue over the crack, eh voila!

 

Just got my CTO F...ordered it on 2/3. Has the Atheros AR287 WiFi card, if anyone is curious.

 

If it's shipped, then it'll be here Friday. too bad since I was really intending to cancel.

 

Nothing more to say about-it? Like, dislike?

 

My configuration is as below:

Product: US-VPCF1190X-LBOM
Component: Vegas Pro 9.0
Component: Intel® Core™ i7-820QM processor (1.73GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 3.06GHz
Component: 16.4" VAIO Premium Display (1920x1080) with NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M GPU (1GB VRAM)
Component: Fresh Start
Component: No additional Office Software
Component: No additional Photo Editing Software
Component: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
Component: Blu-ray Disc™ player/burner
Component: No additional AntiVirus Software
Component: Keyboard Backlight
Component: Standard Capacity Battery
Component: Black
Component: No Engraving
Component: Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit
Component: 256GB (256GBx1) Solid State Drive

 

If your CC got charged, I will bet that it is on the way. So what exactly is your concern ? You are getting what you ordered for, right ? Or are you afraid that you are getting something else ?

 

dude what is it with you and oddly placed dash marks?

Oh and can someone explain how dramatic the difference is betweent he atheros and the intel?

 

Wow!

You forgot to post your home address.

 

Noh, the immediate need for the laptop has passed, I borrowed a Macbook, and the next critical use is two months away;so I was going to see if the refresh brought anything to improve general use for me.

 

??? Could you explain?

 

Yes, the Vegas Pro 9.0 was something I really wanted and missed the last go-around. After some back-and-forth with slrosenfeld, and based on his feedback/findings, I decided to get the SSD too.

It better last me a while....I typically follow a 4-5 year laptop replacement cycle.

 

We don't have Vegas as an option, but I was happy to get Premiere, and yes, this go-round I added the SSD.

 

On US sonystyle, Vegas costs $399, while CS4 Premiere costs $299. I would have thought that Vegas Pro 9.0, being a Sony package, would have been priced lower than the Adobe product.

 

And Premiere is a complete Suite, Webgraphics I think, which is $1000.

 

lol not meant to be a serious insult (Don't you hate how you can't effectively use sarcasm on the internet?)

And it was in regards to you going "about-it" and something else in a previous post. Forget about it. I want to keep this on-topic for the most part.

 

I did not take it as an insult, just wanted to understand.

My native language is French but I speak Spanish & English every day & on some occasions, I use my rusty Italian & Greek, so excuse my French. I promise I will keep my dashes on check.

 

Still playing with it/setting it up. I have the extended battery and the tilt is going to be fun to get used to...I'm a programmer and my wrist is a little tweaked from typing all day.

So far no real complaints. No whine that I hear (yet...but I am a musician, so maybe I'm deaf). I've made the recovery discs, setup Clam antivirus, and installed Firefox and NoSquint with no problems. Next step will probably be trying slrosenfeld's display profile.

Gotta say, this screen is pretty bright...but that's a good thing. The keyboard does flex a little bit, but only if I really pressed down. Didn't even notice it until now, when I thought to check it.

Erm, that's all I can think of for now. Happy to answer any questions about it...well, questions that are easy to answer, any way

 

So if I am say watching a blu-ray movie on battery would it throttle? Or watch anything hd online?

 

[Up pointing arrow]
I am very interested in the answer to this.

 

I would own one of these right now if it had a little bit better video card. As it is, I can spend just a little bit more and get the Asus G73 (portability is not a factor for me). Heck, by the time I can get my hands on a G73, Sony may have done a refresh on the F. I hope so.